Group Sues Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jerry Brown To Defend Prop 8

By

Carlos Santoscoy

|
September 01, 2010

A Christian-based legal group is
attempting to force California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and
Attorney General Jerry Brown to appeal a federal district court
ruling that found the state's gay marriage ban, Proposition 8,
unconstitutional, the AP reported.

The Pacific Justice Institute filed its
case Monday in the Third District Court of Appeals in Sacramento.

Proposition 8, which was narrowly
approved by voters in November 2008, put an end to the gay weddings
taking place in California after the state's Supreme Court legalized
the institution.

Last month, Chief U.S. District Judge
Vaughn Walker ruled the law violated the U.S. Constitution.

The lawsuit named the state of
California – represented by Schwarzenegger and Brown – as
defendants. But both officials have refused to defend the law.

Proposition 8's sponsor, Protect
Marriage, a coalition of social conservative groups that includes the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), the
California Catholic Conference and various evangelical churches,
intervened to defend the law.

But doubts have been raised about
whether the group has standing to appeal Walker's ruling.

“While the court determined that
proponents had a significant protectible interest … in defending
Proposition 8, that interest may well be 'plainly insufficient to
confer standing,'” Walker wrote in his ruling.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in
San Francisco has put the ruling on hold and scheduled oral arguments
for the second week in December.

The lawsuit argues that state officials
do not have discretion to pick and choose which laws they wish to
defend.